Nvidia Driver Issues - Linux Mint

[dave1953]

Just a suggestion for the developers, to the benefit of all those who love using Linux Mint but are plagued by the problems associated with Nvidia drivers and do not yet have the knowledge and confidence to negate these.

Please, please please next release - make an edition with built-in nvidia drivers as an option - like other distros do.

Thank you for reading this, sorry about my continued frustration over this issue.

[Hoser Rob]

Linux Mint already comes with built in nvidia drivers, as all distros do because that's part of the kernel. The Linux kernel is a separate project from any GNU/Linux distro like Mint.

But I think you mean all proprietary drivers, which isn't going to happen with any distro. First, they're proprietary. Second, it'd be unworkable.

WHy don;t you just start a thread, include your inxi -Fxz output pasted in text form, and clearly state the problem.

[dave1953]

Yes you are correct my poor phrasing. I may put yet another post regarding my ongoing problem as this is not the correct vehicle. Thanks for your input.

[Termy]

I use the proprietary nVidia drives. I've had a multitude of issues, like glitches, screen tearing, performance issues, and incorrect DPI. However, I've been able to fix or workaround almost every issue. Since I can't link a YouTube video here without getting a slap on the wrist, I'll type up some stuff:

1. Triple Buffering

This helped me, but YMMV. I enabled triple buffering by editing the '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' file. At the end of the file, you should see a bit like this:

Code: Select all

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "SLI" "Off"
    Option         "MultiGPU" "Off"
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "off"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

I added in the following line, amongst those other Options:

Code: Select all

    Option         "TripleBuffer" "on"

AFAIK, this option cannot be set via the nvidia-settings(1) GUI.

2. DPI

By default, the DPI, at least for me, was set to something far too low, yet the standard is 96. Took a bit of digging, but I found an Option for this too:

Code: Select all

    Option         "DPI" "96 x 96"

Once I restarted (or re-logged; I can't remember) the DPI was back to normal.

3. Pipeline

There's a setting called ForceFullCompositionPipeline in nvidia-settings(1), but here's how to configure it using the aforementioned configuration file:

Code: Select all

    Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On, ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On}"

That at least works for me. The +0+0 is applicable for my setup, but you might need to change it according to yours, if you have multiple monitors.

4. Compositor

I use compton(1). I had an awesome configuration for nouveau, but many of the settings weren't compatible with the proprietary nVidia driver, meaning I'd have all sorts of issues, including screen-tearing.

After some tweaking, I found these settings to be ideal. I realise most of y'all here will probably not be using compton(1), but thought I'd mention it just in-case.

5. Firefox

As you might already know, there are a bunch of handy-dandy settings you can configure in Firefox, via about:config. I set layers.acceleration.force-enabled to true, which fixed screen tearing in Firefox for me.

However, I found this just now:

Side note: The reason why GPU Acceleration is disabled by default in Firefox on most, if not all Linux distributions is because WebGL is considered by many as a security risk.

There's some information on that over here.

[dave1953]

Thank you for your kind assistance and it is much appreciated.

[DPM]

plagued by the problems associated with Nvidia drivers

I just don't give any money to a company that basically shows me the not-so-nice finger.

[MartyMint]

plagued by the problems associated with Nvidia drivers

I just don't give any money to a company that basically shows me the not-so-nice finger.

Let me guess, you just discovered the 7 year old Linus Torvalds video. right?

[DPM]

Let me guess, you just discovered the 7 year old Linus Torvalds video. right?

I saw that video the year it was put online, and also, it's still true.

[MartyMint]

Okay.